From: William James
Subject: Re: Another From the Trenches Kenny Gotta Be a Better Way Challenge
Date: 
Message-ID: <5ef8cdd8-8605-4f29-a3db-a76196a6ba5d@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com>
Barry Margolin wrote:
> In article <························@cv.net>,
>  Ken Tilton <···········@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> > (let* ((nums (list 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7))
> >        (used (make-array (length nums)
> >                :element-type 'bit
> >                :initial-element 0)))
> >    (labels ((show-one (depth)
> >               (when (find 0 used)
> >                 (let ((one (loop thereis
> >                                  (loop for n in nums
> >                                      unless (= 1(bit used n))
> >                                      when (zerop (random (length nums)))
> >                                      return n))))
> >                   (print one)
> >                   (setf (bit used one) 1)
> >                   (show-one (1+ depth))))))
> >      (show-one 0)))
> >
> > This is somewhat distorted, but the labeled fn show-one is what I really
> > have to do: given a mask and a list of numbers some of whom have already
> > been "used" indicated by (= 1 (bit mask <that number>)), pick a number
> > at random from those still unused. Without consing.
> >
> > In case it is confusing above, in reality there will be just a dozen
> > random numbers under about 5000, and the mask will be a 5000 bit mask.
> >
> > All I have so far is trying numbers at random in a tight loop.
>
> Count the number of unused elements, pick a random integer N between 1
> and that count, then find the Nth unused element.

Arc

(= nums '(9 22 37 54 61 78 83 92))
(= used '(22 54 83))

(= which (rand (count [~some _ used] nums)))
(let count 0
  (each n nums
    (if (~some n used)
      (do   (if (is count which) (prn n))
            (++ count)))))